Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 HARTFORD, Conn.--The Western New England University women's volleyball team went the distance in both outings with mixed results on Saturday to conclude the Trinity College Invitational at Oosting Gymnasium. The Golden Bears, who are ranked 10th in New England, now stand at 8-3 on the season after falling to the host Bantams in a heartbreaker 15-25, 16-25, 25-19, 27-25, 16-14 and then bouncing back to win a five-setter, this time against Brandeis University, 25-17, 13-25, 25-10, 20-25, 15-7.

Senior Carolyn Hajdusek led the Western New England offense on the day with 19 kills, followed by classmate Kasey Cameron with 16 and junior Olivia Lathrop had 15.

In the 3-2 win over the Judges, the Golden Bears hit .600 (6 attacks on 10 attempts with no errors) as a team in the decisive set.

Cameron put down 12 kills while sophomore setters Jenna Leuck and Jessica Sincero directed the WNE offense with 18 and 17 assists, respectively.

Senior Grace Kucharski led the Golden Bears defensively with 15 digs, followed by Leuck with 13 and senior Kendra Ouimette and Cameron had 10 each.

Sophomore libero Kristen Cooprider led the way with 28 digs as the Bantams came back from a 2-0 deficit and won dramatic victories in the fourth (27-25) and fifth sets (16-14) to record a 3-2 victory over WNE.

Trailing 2-0 Trinity rallied back to win the third set, 25-19, against the Golden Bears. Sophomore setter Randi Whitham served up five straight points to turn a 16-14 lead into a 21-14 advantage to key the victory. In the fourth set, the teams traded leads several times before the Bantams scored two in a row for 27-25 win, and juniors Hunter Drews and Katie Stueber notched the clinching 16th point with a block in the fifth set. Junior middle hitter Kate Giddens had a team-high 10 kills to go with two aces, 14 digs, and five blocks, while Stueber finished with 12 digs and eight blocks.

For the Golden Bears, Hajdusek had one of her best matches so far on the young season with 13 kills on a .321 attack percentage. Junior Kelsey Armstrong added 10 kills and freshman Carly Skibinski chipped in nine kills and .368 hitting.

The Golden Bears were a force at the net with a season-best 17 team blocks, led by Lathrop who had a career-high nine total blocks (including 5 solo) to pace all players. Cameron posted six blocks while Skibinski and Hajdusek contributed three apiece.

Trinity, ranked No. 7 in New England, moves to 6-2 after the weekend's play. Brandeis is 2-6, while Eastern Connecticut is 5-3, and Westfield State is 3-7. Trinity finished 3-1, Western New England was 2-1, Eastern Connecticut, Brandeis, and Westfield State all went 1-2, and Worcester Tech was 1-1 for the weekend.

Western New England continues a stretch of eight matches on the road on Tuesday when it travels to New London, Conn., to play Connecticut College.

(Editor's note: Trinity Athletics contributed to the game report against WNE)